One final showing for a star of the centre stage

Cup final day at Twickenham is almost always a sunny carnival, which these days marks it out as an exception to the heavy rule at the home of English rugby. But amid all the laughter and flag-waving today, you should be able to pick out a few people in mourning, because before the main event between Wasps and Llanelli Scarlets for the Powergen Cup - when Matt Dawson will bid us adieu from the Wasps bench - we will be saying goodbye to yet another hero from 2003. And in the light of England's recent labours in the creativity department, this one is a particularly poignant farewell.

At 12.30pm Will Greenwood will trot out at Twickenham for the last time when Harlequins take on Bedford for the Powergen Trophy, the competition for those in English rugby below the top flight. Without any specific knowledge of the Bedford midfield, it is probably safe to say that his tall, slender frame will, as always, stand out against the stockier figures charging round him and that the game will seemingly slip into a bubble of slow motion whenever it comes his way, only to accelerate away again to normal speed when one of his dextrous flips releases a team-mate into space.

It is safe to say, as well, that England fans present who remember the not-so-distant days when Greenwood was the creative beacon at the heart of a free-scoring England team circa 2001 will be weeping for the past in their carnival hats. Greenwood made his England debut in 1997 and went on to win 55 caps, scoring 31 tries. He was utterly commanding the night England won the World Cup, and rarely did any side look short of ideas when he was in midfield.

The fact that so distinguished a figure is now taking his final bow in a warm-up to the main event is because of Quins' relegation from the Premiership last season. They have already confirmed their immediate return, having so far survived all but one of the weekly attempts at an ambush they have had to endure in the league below.

'I would certainly trumpet Division One,' Greenwood says. 'This has not been a jolly for Quins. Off the field the club has learnt a lot about itself. It would have been very easy for a lot of players to jump ship, but virtually the whole squad stayed together. The season-ticket holders were offered discounts but didn't take them. We have a new stadium, and with nine or 10 thousand for a home game in the league below, we're the envy of some Premiership clubs.'

If Harlequins have found that there is life beyond the Premiership, the jury is still out on the dreaded relegation issue, and Greenwood admits it is an impossibly delicate dilemma. 'The "swingometer" for me is edging against it. I'd like to do more research, but as a player who has been through relegation I think that, although you would lose a massive amount of theatre without it, for English rugby and for ambition, investment and development I'm not sure it has a place.'

Which brings us back to the sorry state of the England rugby team, so obviously lacking the authority of a ball-playing centre in the Greenwood mould. 'What went wrong with England is more of a dissertation, which is why they're taking so long to try to sort it out. I hope someone has the gumption to make hard decisions. I'm a football fan and a cricket fan, and I want to know what the bloody hell's going on with the cricket when we manage to win the third Test under the amazing Flintoff and three days later we can't chase 202 in the one-day. And I'm no different from any other England rugby supporter. It's amazing, the desire for success. We want immediate answers and if we don't get them we want change, even if it's not always as simple as that.'

Greenwood has turned his hand to a spot of journalism and is already proving a natural at it, revealing a few weeks ago that Sir Clive Woodward had been in talks with the RFU. He makes no apologies for putting Woodward forward, nor for the fact that he may favour him because he is biased towards the components of what was an extraordinary England team in the first years of the century.

'When you have an amazing group of players - and I'm very biased about the team I was involved in - you can paper over cracks. When you lose amazing players, these cracks appear. And then simply to apportion blame to individuals for their background in rugby league, or to one guy at the top, I think is to miss the point.

'English rugby has been extremely cyclical. We are not blessed year in year out with world-class players. You lob a ball to a six-year-old in the southern hemisphere and they catch it. Do it over here and we kick it. But every now and then in rugby we're lucky enough to have a pretty good group of players under an extraordinary captain and a visionary coach. Those boys who reached the World Cup final in 91 would see it in the same way as we did. But what we need is the foundations that will help us get away from that kind of... is there such a word as cyclicality?'

Will Greenwood - he's now creating words, which bodes ill for the height of the journalistic bar if he ever takes writing seriously when he retires from being creative at rugby. At the moment, though, he cannot look beyond the arrival of a second child in the next few days and a role in Harlequins' commercial department in the next few months.

And perhaps he will take time to review a career that, in an age of Identikit rugby players, has shone brilliantly as a quirky, off-the-wall antidote - and one that was vindicated by the ultimate triumph. 'Whether in my living room or out on the field at Twickenham I can close my eyes and transport myself back to changing rooms, matches, banter and all the people who played such a huge role in allowing me to develop and to get international recognition and to be a part of November 2003.' Today, if you are at Twickenham early enough for the alternative to the mainstream event, you too could transport yourself back for one last time.